Willowherb seeds

I led a very gentle walk for a local University of the Third Age (U3A) group at the nature reserve. We looked at late flowering plants (including Chiltern Gentians and Devil's-bit Scabious), fruits, fungi (Deathcap had usefully appeared over the last couple of days), solitary bee burrows and plant galls. It was a reminder of just how much there is to see in this early autumn period. With so many plants in seed or fruit, there are lots of wonderful sculptural forms and colours to delay even an energeric walk; in our case, we found lots of interest within a hundred metres of the car park!